Allied air support for Bolt Action

Hello guys,

I really like painting historical aircraft models, althought I have painted only a handful in all my life, I  especially  when they tie into a themed wargaming force (this time, Bolt Action force).

 For my Mediterranean theatre army, I recently finished painting a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk in RAF desert camouflage — specifically representing an aircraft in British service during the Sicilian campaign of 1943.

For the  kit I used the 1/72 scale P-40 from HobbyBoss, a solid kit that goes together quickly, because it is a begginer model,  and while it’s simple compared to more detailed aircraft kits, it’s perfect for tabletop use — light, durable, and looks great from a distance.

The painting process was as follows;

I wanted the plane to reflect the classic RAF desert scheme common in North Africa and Sicily around 1942–43, so for the  base colors: I primed the whole model in light grey, then sprayed the underside with a pale Azure Blue.

Then began the masking process with masking tape and black masking  putty for the topside camo. I applied Mid Stone and Dark Earth and achieved the hard edges between the two tones.

The weathering was simple, oil dots fading in the fuselage, panel lines were lightly washed with a brown wash, and then some streaks on the wing roots and cowling. I used RAF decals from the model.

To simulate the aircraft in flight for Bolt Action, I made a custom flight stand with a mdf round base, clear acrylic rod.

I glued a small neodymium magnet under the fuselage, this connects to a clear acrylic rod, which is inserted into a custom MDF base.

The base itself is textured and decorated with static grass and flowers.

While Bolt Action’s air support is abstract and often limited to one die roll, having a painted aircraft on the table adds atmosphere and narrative value. Whether it represents a strafing run or just serves as thematic terrain, this P-40 helps root the force in its historical context — British and Commonwealth troops fighting their way through the sun-baked hills of Sicily in the summer of ’43.

I hope you like this little plane.

Cheers

Tanks for Sicily 1943: Semovente 47/32

 Hello guys

Sorry for the lack of activity in the last months, I got married in late April, then came the honeymoon,  a new job, I moved to a new home... so a lot of non hobby stuff as you can imagine, so now, very slowly I am recovering the mood of painting again :)

I wanted to add more tanks to my Bolt Action,  Axis force for the Battle of Sicily 1943. 

as shown previously here: https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/2021/03/bolt-action-italian-tanks-in-sicily-1943.html

Italian armour in Sicily consisted of the captured R35 tank,  the Semovente 90/53 and finally, Semovente 47/32.  I already painted the first two models, so now I have finished the little Semovente 47/32.

These little tank destroyers after the fall of Tunis in 1943 were stationed in Italy, with units attached to the “Black Shirt” Divisions  and Livorno infantry division in Sicily. They saw action in defence of the island when the Allies invaded in  1943 with Operation Husky.

Unfortunately for the Semovente 47/32, when they entered service, they faced newer allied tank designs, with better armour and firepower. The 47mm gun was ineffective against medium tanks like  M4 Sherman, and barely adequate against smaller allied light tanks like the M3 ‘Honey’ Stuart at normal fighting ranges, so I will use the tank carefully in my games, trying to keep it safe under the protection of heavier German tanks or guns.

The model itself is from Warlord Games, resin and metal, but the quality is good and had no flash. The crew was also included, and was mandatory to paint them, as the tank would be absolutely incomplete without the crew, as it is an open top vehicle.

The painting process was the usual;

1) airbrushing the colors, giving them some cenital highlights

2)  gloss varnish

3) decals  

4) gloss varnish again in order to protect the previous work

5) color filter by Ammo Mig

6) Oil dots for color fading

7) Pin wash in the recesses with dark enamel by Tamiya

8) 2 color chipping

9) rust, streaking grime

10) dust effects, mud, and then matt varnish

11)spilled grease/oil , basing and finished!

I hope you like this little vehicle, cheers!

Bolt Action Fallschirmjager for Sicily PART II FINAL

 Hello guys,

I finally managed to finish the entire squad of Artizan Fallschirmjager in Sicily 1943!

 As this is the second (and final part) of this squad, leave the link of the first post here:

https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/2022/10/bolt-action-fallschirmjager-for-sicily.html

These are fantastic Artizan Design miniatures, "Ramcke Brigade" Fallschirmjager, I think they are out of production nowadays. I painted them as Fallschirmjager Regiment 3 in Sicily, summer 1943, as their uniform was almost the same, tropical suit.

This is second part of the squad , painted in Vallejo and Foundry paints, using different shades of desert yellow ochre color in order to show the sun faded effect in the fabric.

The newly painted miniatures are these 6:

Now the full unit:

I will also paint a light anti tank rifle team from Perry Miniatures, the 2,8-cm-schwere Panzerbüchse 41

a 28mm gun in 28mm scale (bad joke). I may add more Fallschirmjager to this German Army ( already have common Wehrmacht infantry, Hermann Göring Panzers)... I also have 3 Italian tanks, 2 painted (and posted in this blog)  and 1 unpainted, the Semovente 47/32 by Warlord Games, already built and primed. I hope to finish this army in 2023!

Cheers

28mm Church Warlord Games/Italeri

 Hello mates,

I recently bought a second hand Warlord Games Church. It is an Italeri 1/72 scale Church, sold by Warlord as a result of collaboration between Italeri and Warlord Games since the last few years.

I wanted this kit since I saw it for the first time, although is not as well detailed as resin kits from Tabletop World, it is a decent model and reasonably priced, and above all,  is perfect for  a Mediterranean Church for my WW2 Sicily project or my XVII c. battles in Spain , like my siege of Gerona 1684 project.

Its size also convinced me, because it is tall but not too big in its footprint (remember it is 1/72). I got my inspiration with smaller footprint buildings from Sidney Roundwood's blog.

By the way, I got it quite cheap and it also came already built in a second hand app in Spain, so the painting process began almost inmediately after receiving it at home!  With the church I also bought a couple of Italeri mediterranean houses, in 1/72 but perfect for 28mm , and they also came fully built although unpainted :)

I usually paint my scenery with airbrush and expensive paints and materials, but this time I wanted to try something different:

A quick'n dirty way to finish off the building in no time!

The church came built, so I primed it in grey.

1) first step was picking a wide brush and craft paints and basecoated in dark grey the stones and red the roof, although the shingles are not modelled as mediterranean shingles and look like slate plates, but anyway I wanted them red.

2) I then changed the brush and started painting individually some stone and bricks and shingles, randomly in different shades of grey or red.

3) After that, I washed the whole model in dark brown oil paint with White Spirit

4) 2 days later, I decided to paint different colors of oil dots in the the whole model, and then fading the dots with the wide brush moistened in white spirit, with vertical brush strokes.

5) 2 days later the fun began with the drybrushing stage, light grey and creamy color in all the stone parts, and light red on the roof.

6) then some static grass and matt varnish.

It was very simple and easy to do , and the result is satisfactory, although it is not an award winning piece of terrain, it does it job in the gaming table.

I hope you find it useful !

Bolt Action Fallschirmjager for Sicily and Mediterranean

 Hello guys,

I am still painting World War 2 stuff for my Sicily 1943 project,  this time, half a platoon of German Fallschirmjager, paratroopers for Bolt Action game, inspired by the new book of Bolt Action "Soft Underbelly"

The miniatures are Artizan Designs, from an out of production line of "Ramcke Brigade" paratroopers in North Africa, but I found them excellent for Sicily too, with their tropical uniforms, in summer shirts are so on.

I have painted six of them so far, deliberately changing the shades of yellow ochre on the different miniatures, in order to give more flavour to the unit.

the other 6 are just primed in brown, waiting in the painting queue ( I hope to paint them soon).

I already have a couple of Panzers of Hermann Goering division and another couple of Italian tanks in Sicily, some standard German infantry (in fieldgrey uniform) with mortar and HMG, but I wanted to add more "Mediterranean" feeling to the army with some Fallschirmjager in tropical uniform, and, in the future, Italian infantry too.

This is the Order of Battle of 1st Fallschirmjäger Division in Sicily:

 - Generalleutnant Richard Heidrich (commenced arriving by air on 12 July; the 1st Fallschirmjäger Regiment was held in reserve at Naples)

3rd Fallschirmjäger Regiment

3x battalions

13th Mortar Company

14th Anti-tank Company

4th Fallschirmjäger Regiment

3x battalions

13th Mortar Company

14th Anti-tank Company

1st Parachute Artillery Regiment

I Battalion (3x batteries 7.5 cm GebG 36)

II Battalion (3x batteries 7.5 cm GebG 36; with the 1st Fallschirmjäger Regiment at Naples)

1st Parachute Machine Gun Battalion

1st Parachute Panzerjäger Battalion (7.5 cm Pak 40 anti-tank guns)

1st Parachute Engineer Battalion

1st Parachute Signal Battalion

Division Services

Bolt Action US airborne for Sicily and Normandy (old miniatures)

 Hi guys,

I am still in WW2 mood,  painting some scenery for Sicily 1943 and a platoon of tropical Fallschirmjager for the same theatre. But in the meantime, I took from the box some old painted Bolt Action miniatures like this US Airborne force from Bolt Action, mostly bought back in the day when the game saw the light.

This weekend I took some pictures of my small US force so far. 

It comprises a platoon of US Airborne, a Sherman tank and a 76mm gun.  The first two units are Warlord's and the latter is Artizan.

I recently bought 2 more Shermans and another Airborne platoon, also support weapons like mortar and Bazookas, in order to have the army more playable.

These were painted a looooong time ago, maybe almost a decade or so, but never photographed.

The infantry is not painted up to my today's standard of painting, these were painted using Quickshade splash on technique and then slightly highlighted, but anyway, I will paint another batch at some point, and expand the army.

The army was thought for Normandy, but I will use it for Sicily, although the tank has the wrong painting scheme and is not the exact version of Sherman... but , you know, it's a game :D